sustain:if:able kiwi

blogging and theology again or here we go round the blogberry bush

Just when a conversation seems to have exceeded the blog span of attention (2 weeks) Stephen has another go at the relationship between blogs and theology.

At the risk of repeating myself:
the blogging medium allow a conversation,
which is potentially more egalitarian (although don’t most blog conversations essentially occur under a US domain name?)
but provides no guarantee of a conversation either meaningful or worth listening to
and would suggest that the human propensity to insularity might well haunt future conversations as much as it has past conversations.

the blogging medium allows a community approach to theology,
which returns theology to its roots – the essence of the practise of a community of faith
yet I often see little middle ground between flaming and the fawning “best post ever”
and would suggest that future communities will need better manners and better technologies.

the blogging medium is best done in short bursts,
which limits the pursuit of complicated and nuanced arguments, developed over time

the blogging medium allows instant responses to contemporary theological issues
but in so doing, could well become a conversation that ignores those who had the historically misfortune to write in a pre-blog era/error.

the blogging medium allows a “cross-disciplinary/ethnic/cultural synergy”
but having just returned from one such conference, such revolutionary polemic seems oddly ho-humm